2.2 Subspaces

Subspace本身并不是一个很难的概念，就是一个自己也是space的子集合。其检验可以简化为Theorem 1， 即$\alpha ,\beta \in W,c\in F\iff c\alpha +\beta \in W$， 在很多其他的书中，这个定理用于subspace的定义。Example 6 中给出了一些例子，包括zero subspace，symmetric，Hermitan（self-adjoint）空间等。Example 7 说明homogeneous system的解的集合是一个subspace，并且还推广了一个矩阵的带数乘的分配律，即$A(dB+C)=d(AB)+AC$，当然里面矩阵的乘法要有意义。
从Theorem 2开始，用一个很新的方式看待某一类特殊的subspace，即subspace spanned by S，Theorem 2首先说明，V的任意subspace的交集还是一个subspace，由此可知，包含S的subspace有一个最小的subspace（不断地取S的subspace的交集），并因此将subspace spanned by S定义出来：所有包含S的subspace的交。这一定义的好处是允许S有无限元素（实际上是无限维元素），当S只包含有限个vector时，subspace spanned by S是传统上大家比较熟悉的样子。Theorem 3即阐述了：subspace spanned by S实际上是S中vector所有的linear combination的集合，注意这里同样没有限制S是有限的，这就是这一种subspace定义方式的好处。
接下来有一个新的定义即集合的和或者说subspace的和，实质是每个集合中任取一个vector并相加而组成的集合。如果$W_1,W_2,\dots ,W_k$是$V$的subspace，那么$W=W_1+W_2+\cdots +W_k$也是一个subspace（按定义可证），并且$W=\text{subspace spanned by }{W}_1\cup \cdots \cup W_k$，因为采用Theorem 3的类似证法，任意包含$W_1\cup \cdots \cup W_k$的subspace都会包含$W$。
最后是几个例子，其中Example 10和11比较精彩。Example 10提出了row-space的概念，其是矩阵的row vectors spanned的subspace，为未来引入矩阵的rank打下基础。Example 11是一个无限维的subspace的例子，并且为第四章介绍多项式打下基础。

Exercises

1. Which of the following sets of vectors $\alpha =(a_1,\dots ,a_n)$ in $R^n$ are subspaces of $R^n(n\ge 3)$?

( a ) all $\alpha$ such that $a_1\ge 0$;
( b ) all $\alpha$ such that $a_1+3a_2=a_3$;
( c ) all $\alpha$ such that $a_2=a_1^2$;
( d ) all $\alpha$ such that $a_1{a}_2=0$;
( e ) all $\alpha$ such that $a_2$ is rational.
Solution:
(a) No, since $(1,0,\dots ,0)$ satisfies, but $-(1,0,\dots ,0)=(-1,0,\dots ,0)$ doesn’t.
(b) Yes, for $\alpha =(a_1,\dots ,a_n),\beta =(b_1,\dots ,b_n)$, if $a_1+3a_2=a_3,b_1+3b_2=b_3$, then any $c\in R$, the vector $c\alpha +\beta =(c{a}_1+b_1,\dots ,c{a}_n+b_n)$ has the property
$(c{a}_1+b_1)+3(c{a}_2+b_2)=c(a_1+3a_2)+b_1+3b_2=c{a}_3+b_3$
( c ) No, since $(1,1,\dots ,0)$ satisfies, but $2(1,1,\dots ,0)=(2,2,\dots ,0)$ doesn’t.
(d) No, since $(1,0,\dots ,0)$ and $(0,1,\dots ,0)$ satisfies, but $(1,1,\dots ,0)=(1,0,\dots ,0)+(0,1,\dots ,0)$ doesn’t.
(e) No, since $(0,1,\dots ,0)$ satisfies, but $\sqrt{2}(0,1,\dots ,0)=(0,\sqrt{2},\dots ,0)$ doesn’t.

2. Let $V$ be the (real) vector space of all functions $f$ from $R$ into $R$. Which of the following sets of functions are subspaces of $V$?

( a ) all $f$ such that $f(x^2)=f(x{)}^2$;
( b ) all $f$ such that $f(0)=f(1)$;
( c ) all $f$ such that $f(3)=1+f(-5)$;
( d ) all $f$ such that $f(-1)=0$;
( e ) all $f$ which are continuous.
Solution:
(a) No, consider $f(x)=1$ if $x\ge 0$ and $f(x)=-1$ if $x<0$, then $f(x^2)=1=f(x{)}^2$, but $2f(x)$ doesn’t satisfy $(2f)(x^2)=(2f(x){)}^2$ since $(2f)(x^2)=2$, while $(2f(x){)}^2=4$.
(b) Yes, if $f,g$ are functions s.t. $f(0)=f(1),g(0)=g(1)$, then
$$(cf+g)(0)=(cf)(0)+g(0)=cf(0)+g(0)=cf(1)+g(1)=(cf+g)(1),\forall c\in R$$
( c ) No, if f satisfies $f(3)=1+f(-5)$, then $2f$ doesn’t, since
$$(2f)(3)=2f(3)=2+2f(-5)=2+(2f)(-5)\ne 1+(2f)(-5)$$
(d) Yes, if if $f,g$ are functions s.t. $f(-1)=g(-1)=0$, then
$$(cf+g)(-1)=cf(-1)+g(-1)=0+0=0,\forall c\in R$$
(e) Yes, since $cf+g$ is continuous for any continuous functions $f,g$.

3.Is the vector $(3,-1,0,-1)$ in the subspace of $R^5$ spanned by the vectors $(2,-1,3,2),(-1,1,1,-3)$ and $(1,1,9,-5)$?

Solution: It’s equivalent to determine whether the system of equations
$$\{\begin{array}{l}2x_1-x_2+x_3=3\\ -x_1+x_2+x_3=-1\\ 3x_1+x_2+9x_3=0\\ 2x_1-3x_2-5x_3=-1\end{array}$$
has solutions or not. Since
$$A^{\prime }=\left[\begin{array}{cccc}2& -1& 1& 3\\ -1& 1& 1& -1\\ 3& 1& 9& 0\\ 2& -3& -5& -1\end{array}\right]\to \left[\begin{array}{cccc}-1& 1& 1& -1\\ 0& 1& 3& 1\\ 0& 4& 13& -3\\ 0& -1& -3& -3\end{array}\right]\to \left[\begin{array}{cccc}1& -1& -1& 1\\ 0& 1& 3& 1\\ 0& 4& 13& -3\\ 0& 0& 0& -4\end{array}\right]$$
this system of equations has no solution, thus the answer is no.

4. Let $W$ be the set of all $(x_1,x_2,x_3,x_4,x_5)$ in $R^5$ which satisfy

$$\begin{array}{cc}2x_1-x_2+\frac{4}{3}{x}_3-x_4& =0\\ x_1+\frac{2}{3}{x}_3-x_5& =0\\ 9x_1-3x_2+6x_3-3x_4-3x_5& =0\end{array}$$

Find a finite set of vectors which spans $W$.

Solution: We have
$$\begin{gathered} \left[\begin{array}{ccccc}2& -1& 4/3& -1& 0\\ 1& 0& 2/3& 0& -1\\ 9& -3& 6& -3& -3\end{array}\right]\to \left[\begin{array}{ccccc}1& 0& 2/3& 0& -1\\ 0& -1& 0& -1& 2\\ 3& -1& 2& -1& -1\end{array}\right] \\ \to \left[\begin{array}{ccccc}1& 0& 2/3& 0& -1\\ 0& 1& 0& 1& -2\\ 0& -1& 0& -1& 2\end{array}\right]\to \left[\begin{array}{ccccc}1& 0& 2/3& 0& -1\\ 0& 1& 0& 1& -2\\ 0& 0& 0& 0& 0\end{array}\right] \end{gathered}$$
The solutions to the system can be written as $x_1=x_5-\frac{2}{3}{x}_3,x_2=2x_5-x_4$. The finite set of vectors which spans $W$ can be found as $(-2,0,3,0,0),(0,-1,0,1,0),(1,2,0,0,1)$

5. Let $F$ be a field and let $N$ be a positive integer $(n\ge 2)$. Let $V$ be the vector space of all $n\times n$ matrices over $F$. Which of the following sets of matrices $A$ in $V$ are subspaces of $V$?

( a ) all invertible $A$;
( b ) all non-invertible $A$;
( c ) all $A$ such that $AB=BA$, where $B$ is some fixed matrix in $V$;
( d ) all $A$ such that $A^2=A$.
Solution:
(a) No, since $A=\left[\begin{array}{cc}1& \\ & 1\end{array}\right],B=\left[\begin{array}{cc}1& 1\\ 0& 1\end{array}\right]$ are invertible matrices, but $B-A=\left[\begin{array}{cc}0& 1\\ 0& 0\end{array}\right]$ is not.
(b) No, since $A=\left[\begin{array}{cc}1& 0\\ 0& 0\end{array}\right],B=\left[\begin{array}{cc}0& 0\\ 0& 1\end{array}\right]$ are not invertible, but $A+B=\left[\begin{array}{cc}1& 0\\ 0& 1\end{array}\right]$ is.
( c ) Yes, since for $A,C$ belongs to the set, we have $(dA+C)B=d(AB)+CB=d(BA)+BC=B(dA+C),\forall d\in F$
(d) No, since if $A=\left[\begin{array}{cc}1& 0\\ 0& 1\end{array}\right]$, then $A^2=A$, but $3A=\left[\begin{array}{cc}3& 0\\ 0& 3\end{array}\right]$ and $(3A{)}^2=9I=3(3A)$.

6. ( a ) Prove that the only subspaces of $R^1$ are $R^1$ and the zero subspace.

( b ) Prove that a subspace of $R^2$ is $R^2$, or the zero subspace, or consists of all scalar multiples of some fixed vector in $R^2$. (The last type of subspace is, intuitively, a straight line throuth the origin.)

( c ) Can you describe the subspace of $R^3$?

Solution:
(a) It’s apparent that $R^1$ and the zero space are subspaces of $R^1$, assume there’s $W\subset R^1$ which is a subspace different from $R^1$ and the zero space, then there’s $a\in W,a\ne 0$ and $b\notin W$, let $k=b/a$, then $b=ka$, which means $b\in W$ since $W$ is a subspace, this is a contradiction.
(b) It’s apparent that $R^2$ and the zero space are subspaces of $R^2$, if W={kv:v∈R2}W=\{kv:v\in R^2 \}W={kv:v∈R2}, then it’s easy to prove $W$ is a subspace of $R^2$. Assume there’s $U\subset R^2$ which is a subspace, but not of the three types above, then $0\in U$ and $\exists u\in U,\exists v\notin U$, since $U$ is not of the last type, we can find $u^{\prime }\in U$ s.t. $u^{\prime }$ is not a scalar multiple of $u$, thus we must be able to find $x_1,x_2\in R$ s.t. $x_{1}u+x_2{u}^{\prime }=v$, this means $v\in U$ and thus a contradiction.
( c ) The subspaces of $R^3$ is $R^3$, the zero subspace, all forms of {kv+lu:u,v∈R3,k,l∈R}\{kv+lu:u,v\in R^3,k,l\in R\}{kv+lu:u,v∈R3,k,l∈R}.

7. Let $W_1$ and $W_2$ be subspaces of a vector space $V$ such that the set-theoretic union of $W_1$ and $W_2$ is also a subspace. Prove that one of the spaces $W_i$ is contained in the other.

Solution: Let $W=W_1\cup W_2$, then $W$ is a subspace of $V$, assume $\exists a\in W_1\backslash W_2,b\in W_2\backslash W_1$, then $a,b\in W$, thus $a+b\in W$, which means $(a+b\in W_1)\vee (a+b\in W_2)$, but this means
$$(b=(a+b)-a\in W_1)\vee (a=(a+b)-b\in W_2)$$
and either leads to a contradiction, thus either $W_1\backslash W_2=\varnothing$ or $W_2\backslash W_1=\varnothing$, the conclusion follows.

8. Let $V$ be the vector space of all functions from $R$ into $R$; let $V_e$ be the subset of even functions, $f(--x)=f(x)$; let $V_o$ be the subset of odd functions, $f(-x)=-f(x)$.

( a ) Prove that $V_e$ and $V_o$ are subspaces of $V$.
( b ) Prove that $V_e+V_o=V$.
( c ) Prove that Ve∩Vo={0}V_e\cap V_o=\{0\}Ve​∩Vo​={0}.
Solution:
(a) first let $f,g\in V_e$, then $f$ and $g$ are even functions, for $c\in R$ we have
$$(cf+g)(-x)=cf(-x)+g(-x)=cf(x)+g(x)=(cf+g)(x)$$
thus $cf+g\in V_e$ and $V_e$ is a subspace of $V$. Similarly, if $f,g\in V_o$, then
$$(cf+g)(-x)=cf(-x)+g(-x)=-cf(x)-g(x)=-(cf+g)(x)$$
thus $cf+g\in V_o$ and $V_o$ is a subspace of V.
(b) let $\forall h\in V$, define
$$f(x)=\frac{h(x)+h(-x)}{2},g(x)=\frac{h(x)-h(-x)}{2}$$
then $f(-x)=f(x),g(-x)=-g(x)$, so $f\in V_e,g\in V_o$, and $f+g=h$.
( c ) If $h\in V_e\cap V_o$, then $h(-x)=h(x)=-h(x)$, thus $h(x)=0,\forall x\in R$.

9. Let $W_1$ and $W_2$ be subspaces of a vector space $V$ such that $W_1+W_2=V$ and W1∩W2={0}W_1\cap W_2=\{0\}W1​∩W2​={0}. Prove thet for each vector $\alpha$ in $V$ there are unique vectors ${\alpha }_1$ in $W_1$ and ${\alpha }_2$ in $W_2$ such that $\alpha ={\alpha }_1+{\alpha }_2$.

Solution: Let $\alpha \in V$, since $V=W_1+W_2$, we can find ${\alpha }_1\in W_1,{\alpha }_2\in W_{2}s.t.\alpha ={\alpha }_1+{\alpha }_2$.
To prove uniqueness, suppose there’s ${\beta }_1\in W_1,,{\beta }_2\in W_2$ s.t. $\alpha ={\beta }_1+{\beta }_2$, then
$${\alpha }_1+{\alpha }_2={\beta }_1+{\beta }_2\Rightarrow {\alpha }_1-{\beta }_1={\beta }_2-{\alpha }_2$$
since ${\alpha }_1-{\beta }_1\in W_1$ and ${\beta }_2-{\alpha }_2\in W_2$, we know that ${\alpha }_1-{\beta }_1\in W_1\cap W_2,{\beta }_2-{\alpha }_2\in W_1\cap W_2$, thus ${\alpha }_1-{\beta }_1={\beta }_2-{\alpha }_2=0$, which means ${\alpha }_1={\beta }_1,{\beta }_2={\alpha }_2$.